Aberrant cholesterol metabolic signaling impairs antitumor immunosurveillance through natural killer T cell dysfunction in obese liver.

Obesity is a major risk factor for cancers including hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) that develops from a background of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Hypercholesterolemia is a common comorbidity of obesity. Although cholesterol biosynthesis mainly occurs in the liver, its role in HCC development of obese people remains obscure.

Cell cycle-related kinase reprograms the liver immune microenvironment to promote cancer metastasis.

The liver is an immunologically tolerant organ and a common metastatic site of multiple cancer types. Although a role for cancer cell invasion programs has been well characterized, whether and how liver-intrinsic factors drive metastatic spread is incompletely understood. Here, we show that aberrantly activated hepatocyte-intrinsic cell cycle-related kinase (CCRK) signaling in chronic liver diseases is critical for cancer metastasis by reprogramming an immunosuppressive microenvironment.

Genetic variation in ABCB5 associates with risk of hepatocellular carcinoma.

Expression of ATP-binding cassette B5 (ABCB5) has been demonstrated to confer chemoresistance, enhance cancer stem cell properties and associate with poor prognosis in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The aim of this study was to evaluate the genetic variations of ABCB5 in HCC patients with reference to healthy individuals and the clinicopathological significance. A pilot study has examined 20 out of 300 pairs HCC and paralleled blood samples using conventional sequencing method to cover all exons and exon/intron regions to investigate whether there will be novel variant sequence and mutation event.

Plasma DNA End-Motif Profiling as a Fragmentomic Marker in Cancer, Pregnancy, and Transplantation.

Plasma DNA fragmentomics is an emerging area of research covering plasma DNA sizes, end points, and nucleosome footprints. In the present study, we found a significant increase in the diversity of plasma DNA end motifs in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Compared with patients without HCC, patients with HCC showed a preferential pattern of 4-mer end motifs.

Targeting monocyte-intrinsic enhancer reprogramming improves immunotherapy efficacy in hepatocellular carcinoma.

Objective: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), mostly developed in fibrotic/cirrhotic liver, exhibits relatively low responsiveness to immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) therapy. As myeloid-derived suppressor cell (MDSC) is pivotal for immunosuppression, we investigated its role and regulation in the fibrotic microenvironment with an aim of developing mechanism-based combination immunotherapy.

Design: Functional significance of MDSCs was evaluated by flow cytometry using two orthotopic HCC models in fibrotic liver setting via carbon tetrachloride or high-fat high-carbohydrate diet and verified by clinical specimens.

Health care costs of depression in patients diagnosed with cancer.

Objective: Depression is common among patients diagnosed with cancer. Patients with cancer and depression use more health care services compared with nondepressed cancer patients. The current study seeks to estimate the added cost of depression in cancer patients in the first year after cancer diagnosis.

The Effects of Mechanical and Thermal Stimuli on Local Field Potentials and Single Unit Activity in Parkinson's Disease Patients.

Background: Chronic pain is a major, debilitating symptom of Parkinson's disease (PD). Although, deep brain stimulation (DBS) has been shown to improve pain outcomes, the mechanisms underlying this phenomenon are unclear. Microelectrode recording allows us to measure both local field potentials (LFPs) and single neuronal unit activity (SUA).

Effect of low-frequency deep brain stimulation on sensory thresholds in Parkinson's disease.

OBJECTIVE Chronic pain is a major distressing symptom of Parkinson's disease (PD) that is often undertreated. Subthalamic nucleus (STN) deep brain stimulation (DBS) delivers high-frequency stimulation (HFS) to patients with PD and has been effective in pain relief in a subset of these patients. However, up to 74% of patients develop new pain concerns while receiving STN DBS.

Rates and risk factors associated with the progression of HIV to AIDS among HIV patients from Zhejiang, China between 2008 and 2012.

Objectives: The objective of this study was to determine the rate of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) in Zhejiang province and to identify specific factors associated with progression of this disease.

Methods: This study utilized a retrospective cohort to identify the specific factors involved in the progression of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) to AIDS. We collected data of patients existing in care between 2008 and 2012 from the national surveillance system databases.

Assessing Fluctuating Cognition in Dementia Diagnosis: Interrater Reliability of the Clinician Assessment of Fluctuation.

Fluctuating cognition (FC) is a core feature of dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) but is challenging to assess. This study assessed the reliability and validity of the Clinician Assessment of Fluctuation (CAF), which assesses FC in patients with dementia. Interrater agreement of CAF outcomes (FC present and FC severe) was evaluated between physicians and nonphysicians in 141 patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) or DLB.

Subjective word-finding difficulty reduces engagement in social leisure activities in Alzheimer's disease.

Objectives: To assess the influence of subjective word-finding difficulty on degree of engagement in social leisure activities among individuals with Alzheimer's disease (AD).

Design: Analysis of data collected from the second cohort of the Multicenter Study of Predictors of Disease Course in Alzheimer's disease.

Setting: Four study sites in the United States and France.

Measuring fragmentation of ambulatory care in a tripartite healthcare system.

Background: Hong Kong has a tripartite healthcare system, where western medicine provided in both public and private sectors coexist with Chinese medicine practice. The purpose of this study is to measure fragmentation of ambulatory care experienced by the non-institutionalized population aged 15 and over in such a tripartite system, thus shed light on the ongoing primary care reform.

Methods: This is a cross-sectional secondary data analysis using the Thematic Household Survey, which was conducted by the Hong Kong Census and Statistics Department during November 2009 to February 2010 to collect territory-wide health-related information.

Hyperbaric oxygen for idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss and tinnitus.

Background: This is an update of a Cochrane Review first published in The Cochrane Library in Issue 1, 2005 and previously updated in 2007 and 2009.Idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss (ISSHL) is common and has a significant effect on quality of life. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) may improve oxygen supply to the inner ear and result in an improvement in hearing.

Presence of donor-derived DNA and cells in the urine of sex-mismatched hematopoietic stem cell transplant recipients: implication for the transrenal hypothesis.

Background: The term "transrenal DNA" was coined in 2000 to signify that DNA in urine may come from the passage of plasma DNA through the kidney barrier. Although DNA in the urine has the potential to provide a completely noninvasive source of nucleic acids for molecular diagnosis, its existence remains controversial.

Methods: We obtained blood and urine samples from 22 hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) recipients and used fluorescence in situ hybridization, PCR for short tandem repeats, mass spectrometry, quantitative PCR, and immunofluorescence detection to study donor-derived DNA in the urine.

Secreted PDZD2 exerts concentration-dependent effects on the proliferation of INS-1E cells.

PDZD2 (PDZ domain containing 2) is a multi-PDZ protein expressed in pancreas and many other tissues. PDZD2 shows extensive homology to pro-interleukin-16 (pro-IL-16) and is localized mainly to the endoplasmic reticulum. We have recently demonstrated that PDZD2, like pro-IL-16, is proteolytically cleaved at its C-terminus to generate a secreted protein, sPDZD2 (for secreted PDZD2).